PLATTSBURGH, NY -- While one western New York wine region has renamed itself as part of a marketing program, an area in the Adirondacks is in the process of actually creating a new wine trail.
Plans for a Lake Champlain Wine Trail, covering an area of the state that currently has five wineries with that number expected to double by year's end, are being worked on by the Lake Champlain Grape Growers Association and the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
"We're working with the group's president, Natalie Peck, to get legislation in place to define a Lake Champlain Wine Trail, hopefully before this year's tourist season gets into full swing," said Jim Trezise NYWGF president. "It's great to see a new wine region blossom, and we wish them all the best," Trezise said today.
Current wineries are the ELFS Farm Winery and Cider Mill, Vesco Ridge Vineyards, Amazing Grace Vineyard and Winery, Stonehouse Vineyard and Hid-In-Pines Vineyard. In addition, there are several independent growers without wine production facilities. Stonehouse in 2006 became the first licensed New York winery in the region.
The region's micro-climate, situated as it is with Vermont's Green Mountains and New York's Adirondacks bordering it, has made it a strong producer for many years of apples and "Minnesota style" wine grapes with cold-climate properties are expanding in popularity. Among them are Frontenac and Marquette.
Lake Champlain Wines will be holding a winemaking workshop called "Making Quality Wines from Cold Hardy Grapes" on Friday, March 11, in Peru, NY. Registration information is available online. The workshop will feature enology extension associate Chris Gerling and assistant enology professor Anna Katharine Mansfield, both of Cornell (she came to New York State from the University of Minnesota), as well as Chris Granstrom, proprietor/winemaker at Lincoln Peak Vineyard in New Haven, VT.
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